Wilhelm Furtwängler (January 25, 1886 – November 30, 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he was one of the leading conductors in Europe - he was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, having left that post with the Gewandhaus Orchestra

There is something haunting about the less than perfect sound of the Vienna Symphony. In addition, the reverberant mono sound obtained by the VOX engineers adds to the cataclysmic mystique of the music!

This music by Wagner, very much a staple of Furtwängler’s repertoire, . As always, the great German conductor ensures maximum expression while allowing the music to move forward in an organic way..

furtwängler attached great importance to ensemble sonority or what is called orchestral colour, and his highly architectural conception of interpretation led him to make the maximum use of dynamics ...so it is essential to seek out issues which do justice to the source like this LP